Creation, Violence, and the God of the Old Testament

Our guest is Iain Provan of Regent College, Vancouver. This is an opportunity for you to engage live with Matt Lynch and Iain Provan on some of the difficult issues pertaining to the way God is portrayed in the Old Testament. Matt will also be discussing Provan’s recent book Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament Really Says and Why it Matters (Baylor, 2014).

Speakers

Matt Lynch, PhD

Matt is an Old Testament scholar and the Dean of Studies at Westminster Theological Centre. His research interests include the theology of Isaiah and ethics in the Old Testament. Matt is the author of Monotheism and Institutions in the Book of Chronicles (Mohr Siebeck, 2014) and various articles on the Old Testament. Matt is particularly interested in helping students grasp the theological and literary contours of the Old Testament, wrestle through its ethical and historical challenges, and understand its ongoing significance. Matt is married to Abi and they have two children, Jeremy and Luci.

Iain W. Provan, PhD

Iain Provan is the Marshall Sheppard Professor of Biblical Studies at Regent College. He received his MA at Glasgow University in Mediaeval History and Archaeology, his BA from London Bible College in Theology, and his PhD from Cambridge. His academic teaching career took him to King’s College London, the University of Wales, and the University of Edinburgh, where he was a senior lecturer in Hebrew and Old Testament Studies. Dr. Provan has written numerous essays and articles, and several books including commentaries on Lamentations, 1 and 2 Kings, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs, and co-authored with Phil Long and Tremper Longman A Biblical History of Israel (John Knox Press, 2003). Most recently he released Against the Grain: Selected Essays (Regent College Publishing, 2015), Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament Really Says and Why It Matters (Baylor University Press, 2014) and Convenient Myths: The Axial Age, Dark Green Religion, and the World that Never Was (Baylor University Press, 2013), and Discovering Genesis (SPCK, 2015). He is currently writing a book on Protestant biblical hermeneutics, projected for release in 2017.